Math Relay Race

I wanted in this last blog post to share an activity I saw on my previous block. This was the "Math Relay Race", and was one of the most effective math games that I have seen. Part of the trickiness with math games is that they are either too educational as to be dry and not very fun, or they are too action-packed and lack any substantial learning. For example, I've seen Jeopardy done in two different math classes and in both cases it was a disaster. The one time I saw it work was in a very, very mature grade 9 math class. The other two classes weren't "problem" classes, but they were very excitable. Other games, such as a matching game where you had to match equations in standard form and y-intercept form were tortuously dull, and not great learning tools. The relay race seems to get the best of both worlds. The process is as follows: prepare a set of 10-20 problems in increasing difficulty (word problems are best). Figure out how many groups you will have, preferably pairs or groups of four, and have a stack ready for each group. Every group starts on the first question, and won't be given the second until they finish it (and get the right answer). Once the second question is done, they get the third, etc. Each time a group finishes a question, they write their names on the question and it gets put in a bag. At the end, a few questions are drawn from the bag and the team with the name gets a prize. The more questions you complete, the more likely you are to win. The addition of the prize puts a little healthy competition in the mix, though the groups still work independently, so the chaos remains very controlled. I saw this activity in action twice, and in both cases it was a resounding success. It it certainly something I would employ in the future, even in physics.